U.S.-born American citizen under ICE hold in Florida is released

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was in a vehicle with others who had traveled from Georgia and was heading to a job in Florida.

A U.S.-born American citizen being held at the request of immigration officials in Florida has been released amid worry by his mother and advocates that the state's anti-immigrant fervor could lead to the same happening to other Americans.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, had been held about 24 hours after he was arrested Wednesday by Florida authorities under a state immigration law a judge temporarily blocked. On Friday, the judge denied a state request to lift the block on the law, according to Thomas Kennedy, a spokesman for Florida Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group. The law allows Florida authorities to arrest people who have entered the state and are suspected to have come to the country illegally.

Lopez-Gomez was in a vehicle with others who had traveled from Georgia and was heading to a job in Florida.

“I feel fine leaving that place, I felt bad in there. They didn’t give us anything to eat all day yesterday,” Lopez-Gomez said in Spanish, according to the Florida Phoenix, which first reported his arrest and release. Lopez-Gomez told the news site that he had told the trooper who arrested him he was a U.S. citizen.

Kennedy told NBC News he was with Lopez-Gomez’s mother at a protest Thursday evening outside the Leon County Jail where her son was being held when she got a call from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informing her he was being released. Rather than release him where she was, ICE asked her to meet them at a nearby Wendy’s for the officer’s safety, he said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-born-american-citizen-ice-hold-florida-released-rcna201854

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